The rage at the time was to reject all the percieved fuddy duddy values..conservative...and embrace "the struggle" of the masses yada yada....hobbits as revolutionaries seeking to overturn the bourgeoisie of both Sauron and the allies...royals and thugs..two faces of the same coin.

It just goes to show you that one can read anything into a work of art and be so far off base from what the writer intended....

Very Monty Pythonish in many ways...BBC spoofs..the oh so serious interviewer, the student angst etc.

I liked that Tolkien showed a mischevious humor in some scenes. Loved the whole Bilbo appearance wiht his pipe, beer, fire, vest. Walking around Oxford shows where Rowling got her inspiration for Hogwarts.